WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Prioritizing diversity and a politically correct work environment gives the United States Armed Forces a “strategic advantage,” the Biden administration claimed Monday in response to a GOP proposal to ban various “woke” practices from the military.
Fox News reports that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives want the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the next fiscal year to include language eliminating the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) diversity, equity, inclusion, & accessibility (DEIA) programs, ban drag shows from military events, defund critical race theory (CRT) initiatives, abolish the DOD’s chief diversity officer position, and prohibit DEIA jobs from being classified as senior positions.
“We passed my amendments slashing DEI bureaucrats, banning race and gender quotas in military recruiting and promotions, reinstating unvaccinated service members fired by the Biden administration, and shutting down the Navy’s drag queen digital ambassador program, and we passed provisions to defund critical race theory courses at West Point and our service,” U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said in June.
On Monday, the White House issued a statement blasting the amendments, claiming that the military’s “strategic advantage in a complex global security environment is the diverse and dynamic talent pool from which we draw. We rely on diverse perspectives, experiences, and skillsets to remain a global leader, deter war, and keep our nation secure.”
“Moreover, DoD is committed to developing and maintaining a dignified, respectful, and safe workplace,” the administration claimed. “Legislation that reduces DoD’s ability to create a positive work environment and fully leverage the best our nation has to offer puts the Department at a strategic disadvantage.”
With the GOP controlling the House and Democrats controlling the Senate, it remains to be seen how many of the amendments (if any) will make it to the version that reaches President Joe Biden’s desk, or whether he would veto it if any do.
Available evidence indicates that, despite the administration’s rhetoric, the impact of “diversity” dogma on the armed forces has been far from advantageous.
The steady rise of “woke” ideology within the military, which has persisted and grown since the Clinton years despite the presidencies of Republicans George W. Bush and Donald Trump, has been intensified by Biden, who upon taking office quickly moved to open the military to recruits suffering from gender dysphoria in a reversal of Trump administration policy, then had his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin launch a review of supposed “domestic extremism” within the military that many saw as a pretext to purge conservative views from the ranks.
In March 2023, the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) published an update on the administration’s work to infuse the armed forces with left-wing gender ideology, ranging from enforcement of preferred pronouns, to allowing cross-dressing and the use of opposite-sex showers and restrooms on military bases, to making it harder to access information on the negative consequences of such policies.
Until last December, Biden’s Pentagon leaders also enforced COVID-19 vaccine mandates on American service men and women, provoking lawsuits and threatening soldier and pilot shortages in the tens of thousands, which only added to broader problems of force strength, troop morale, and public confidence.
During a Pentagon press briefing in April 2022 on the Army’s budget for Fiscal Year 2023, Under Secretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo announced the Army had “proactively made a decision to temporarily reduce our end strength from 485,000 Soldiers to 476,000 in FY ’22, and 473,000 in FY ’23.” The Military Times reported at the time that this “could leave the service at its smallest size since 1940, when it had just over 269,000 troops.”
Gallup and Ronald Reagan Institute polls have both shown that the public has lost confidence in the military’s leaders, which presumably also has a significant effect on prospective soldiers’ willingness to sign up.
But perhaps most alarmingly, in March 2021 Yahoo News revealed a simulation the U.S. Air Force ran the previous fall to assess America’s ability to handle a Chinese biological attack, which culminated in disaster—and, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, signified that “if the U.S. military doesn’t change course…we’re going to lose fast.”